The Mock Turtle

Cerise wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 9:04 amSave the date

Thank you!

Cosmopolitan wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 11:05 am I'm pretty astounded at how expensive Canadian hotels are though.

I think that's the case everywhere now. One night at the Ibis Budget at Auckland airport is costing us the same as one night at the Shangri-la in Kuala Lumpur.

Luna wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 10:56 am Vancouver is fabulous. I just realised it was 30 years ago that I went there! Whistler is spectacular but when I went it was September so no snow. .

I don't want snow, I want hiking .

Everywhere is so expensive these days, but it's a 50th, so I must free the moths in my wallet.

Epponnee Rae wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 12:15 am

Kenickie wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 9:05 pm
I'm going to Bognor Butlins three times.

Apparently I am also going there this year for my sister’s hen do Please share any insider tips.

I’ve accepted a STD for a friend’s 40th in Jordan in April so I need to start thinking about that. Nothing else is on the calendar yet (not including trips back home for my brother’s 40th and sister’s wedding).

The spa is not bad. If someone has a car, The Fox Goes Free is really worth a visit (a Tabs recommendation from years ago). I think pre children we hired bikes (outside of Butlins) which was good.

Most of my current tips are about amusing toddlers so probably not what you want. ;)

Ella77 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 11:24 am

Luna wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 10:56 am Vancouver is fabulous. I just realised it was 30 years ago that I went there! Whistler is spectacular but when I went it was September so no snow. .

I don't want snow, I want hiking .

Everywhere is so expensive these days, but it's a 50th, so I must free the moths in my wallet.

If you want insider information, my aunt and my cousin live in Vancouver and my cousin is a tour rep.

Thanks luna!

We'd like to go to Portugal in April for our wedding anniversary as we've never been but I'm not sure where

Just for a long weekend so probably Lisbon or Porto

If any one has any ideas that would be great

We might go to Canada next year for Mr D's 50+4 as he was 50 in 2020 and my 50th
That would be September

Kenickie wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 11:31 am

Epponnee Rae wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 12:15 am

Kenickie wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 9:05 pm
I'm going to Bognor Butlins three times.

Apparently I am also going there this year for my sister’s hen do Please share any insider tips.

I’ve accepted a STD for a friend’s 40th in Jordan in April so I need to start thinking about that. Nothing else is on the calendar yet (not including trips back home for my brother’s 40th and sister’s wedding).

The spa is not bad. If someone has a car, The Fox Goes Free is really worth a visit (a Tabs recommendation from years ago). I think pre children we hired bikes (outside of Butlins) which was good.

Most of my current tips are about amusing toddlers so probably not what you want. ;)

Thanks Ken! I don’t know all of the logistics yet, and I think some of it is a music weekender thing so goodness knows what that’ll involve. But having a car between a few of us is a good idea, as I like the idea of being able to escape the group! So maybe I should plan to hire one

I'm just browsing holidays now and I really fancy Crete (I want to go to Knossos) but our children are really awkward ages for rooms (13, 11 and 8) so some places A is an adult, some places she counts as a child but it makes all the room permeations really complicated, so I'm looking at villas now, but everything is really expensive. Anyone got any recommendations?

I'm jealous of VI. We had vague plans of a big west coast trip this summer, but I think it's going to be just too expensive (although looking at it, a week in Crete seems to be coming up about half the price I originally had in mind for 3 weeks in the US).

Ooooh, lovely trips planned. R and I loved Vancouver and Kelowna. We got stranded in Kelowna, unexpectedly, when my bike developed a fault on the way to Alaska in 2009. We never got to Alaska, but Canada Day in Kelowna turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip.

R is planning a golfing trip in March in Portugal as a 60th birthday treat for me. He only revealed it last night, deliberately mispronouncing Faro as Faroe! So I thought he was planning some sort of trekking adventure on a remote Scottish island! I was delighted, of course, but rather more delighted at the idea of golf in the sun.

Princess Morripov wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 7:37 pm If you need any Krakow recommendations please let me know Woo, as I went recently (work) and I have 4 of my team there who are really brilliant and I’m sure I can provide a brief and they’d be able to help

I’ve been twice and stayed at the Sheraton which is AMAZING for the price and breakfast is really good. If you are hunting for a hotel. It’s right by the castle so a decent location.

Thank you. We are staying in an apartment in the old town. We're planning to go to Auschwitz and the salt mines but apart from that I thought we would just potter and eat a lot of pig & potato. Any recommendations would be gratefully received.

I've been to Krakow once before, but only for a day, and I've always wanted to go back properly.

Flora Poste wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 2:19 pm I'm just browsing holidays now and I really fancy Crete (I want to go to Knossos) but our children are really awkward ages for rooms (13, 11 and 8) so some places A is an adult, some places she counts as a child but it makes all the room permeations really complicated, so I'm looking at villas now, but everything is really expensive. Anyone got any recommendations?

We did a few days in Malia to do the palaces and then stayed here: https://keramoti-villas.com/the-villas/ - it’s way in the west so a bit of a pain to get to but the villa was beautiful and you get glorious sunsets.

That looks lovely Chicky - I've only had a quick look but one looks to have availability for 5 nights which would work brilliantly with a couple of nights somewhere closer to the palaces.

overthehill wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 2:24 pm
R is planning a golfing trip in March in Portugal as a 60th birthday treat for me. He only revealed it last night, deliberately mispronouncing Faro as Faroe! So I thought he was planning some sort of trekking adventure on a remote Scottish island! I was delighted, of course, but rather more delighted at the idea of golf in the sun.

There are few things nicer than golf in the sun.

..and I never thought I'd hear myself saying that.

I really like Vancouver Island -actually more than Vancouver itself and really didn't rate Whistler much even thought it was a cold, drizzly out of seaon day so probably not the best time to see it) . I loved the ferry trip from the mainland to VI. Victoria is a nice, small city, worth spending 2-3 days in - a really good natural history/social history museum - Museum of British Colombia I think it was. Tofino and the surrounding area was lovely - windswept beaches, just as you imagine them. Halibut, chips and poutine from a van! And the British Colombians generally so courteous and softly spoken.

I'm off to Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina next month for my first proper holiday since 2018 (long weekends don't count) and I'm swinging between excitement and anxiety because I'm going so far out of my comfort zone and have never been abroad alone more than a few days, and that was to Reykjvik which is easy to navigate and everyone spoke English.

I've also got a week off in March and had planned to walk the Camino Portugues but I don't think my knee is up to it at the moment so I'll need to think of something else instead.

Wow, lots of Canadian travel. I have yet to visit the west coast.

We started the year in South Carolina, on our virgin Airstream road trip. It was amazing! Both the trailer and the location. We spent a few days at Myrtle Beach, and then onto Charleston which I absolutely adored and want to go back again. It's beautiful, the food was amazing, and the weather gorgeous. We also had stopovers in Kentucky and North Carolina.

No specific plans yet for this year, but we have penciled in an east coast road trip. And definitely back to the states.

Thanks, Montana. We’re actually planning to skip Victoria unless a really good reason not to presents itself. I’ve been to Vancouver before, and we’ll have a few nights there (split at either end of the trip), and there are still a couple of nights where the destination hasn’t been decided yet, hence thinking of possibly going to Whistler. (There’s high-altitude zip-lining and stuff like that.)

Sky wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 4:25 pm I'm off to Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina next month for my first proper holiday since 2018 (long weekends don't count) and I'm swinging between excitement and anxiety because I'm going so far out of my comfort zone and have never been abroad alone more than a few days, and that was to Reykjvik which is easy to navigate and everyone spoke English.

I've also got a week off in March and had planned to walk the Camino Portugues but I don't think my knee is up to it at the moment so I'll need to think of something else instead.

I'm jealous! You'll love the trip. Most people speak English and everyone is super helpful. Argentina was a lot more relaxed than I imagined it to be. Take the train from BA to Tigre, it's about an hour and you can have a boat ride.
We only did a day trip to Uruguay on the fast catamaran but Montevideo was awesome.
If you do Rio, go to the sugar loaf mountain late in the afternoon and watch the sun set. You won't want to leave.
We did both beaches (Copacabana and Ipenema) but sad to say i was neither tall or tanned or young or lovely...